Hudds North/South TRA Event on Monday 20/01/14

Over 50 representatives from Tenants and Residents Associations in the two Huddersfield neighbourhoods turned up for this event. As well as time to catch up and talk to other volunteers, KFTRA arranged for Michael Gelling Chair of TAROE (Tenants and Residents of England) to attend the meeting. Michael gave an interesting talk on a new campaign being organised by TAROE to find out what tenants actually want and what the important issues are that affect social housing tenants.
Some of the issues raised were;

No rent increase above inflation

Abolish the bedroom tax

Rinfencing issues

Negative publicity

Tenants should have a huge political influence

One in five people in England live in the social housing sector, thats 10.6 million people living in 4.2 million properties.

TAROE aim to ask as many of their membership as possible to identify their concerns and priorities and these will be presented to the main political parties with the demand that the voice of 20% of the population is listened to and their concerns are met.

If you would like to take part in this important survey and add your voice to the tenant movement, then please click the link below.

Lower Energy Bills for Kirklees Council Housing Tenants and Residents

Main Points

if you pay by Direct Debit you should be able to save an average of 10% – 15% per year off the cost of your energy bills.

if you are on a pre-payment meter as long as you have arrears of £500 or less then you can still join the scheme and your savings could be 40%

You can join the scheme up until April 17th 2013

For people on a lower income or on benefits this is the only way that you can significantly reduce your energy costs.

IMPORTANT – to sign up to the scheme you will need a recent energy bill and preferably details of your payments for the last year

The scheme is NOT suitable for Warm Zone customers.

The offer is for gas supplies, or gas/electric supplies, but not electricity only.

Once your offer is made to you, you will have 14 days to decide and then a 7 day cooling off period where you can change your mind. It will then take around four to six weeks for the change of companies to be implemented.

Getting the Site Right

Would you like to be a getting the site right inspector and help make your neighbourhood a better place to live?

Involving Tenants

Involving tenants and residents is essential to the process of managing, monitoring and improving the grounds maintenance service in Kirklees.
Kirklees Council Streetscene aim to ‘Get the Site Right’ in their work on your estate but they are not there every day. They need you to let them know when problems occur or any issues you are aware of.

What is a getting the site right inspector?

It is someone who has the power to report poor work and channel views and ideas of other

Kirklees Garden

tenants on how to improve your estate.
You can also attend annual site inspections with a member of the gardening team to discuss work done and put forward ideas for improvement.

What Next

For more information you can attend one of the workshops below

Huddersfield Town Hall, Reception Room on Monday 25th March 2013 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Dewsbury Town Hall Council Chambers, on Tuesday 26th March 2013 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Please contact Nigel on 01484 225064 to register for one of the workshops or to find out more about what is involved.

SAY NO! TO COMPULSORY DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENTS

Don’t take away tenants’ choice!

Join the Kirklees Tenants Movement Campaign

SAY NO TO COMPULSORY DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENTS

Deputation – Tenant representatives will be attending the Kirklees Cabinet Meeting on Tuesday, 26th February, being held at Huddersfield Town Hall at 4.00pm to hand in a deputation.

Kirklees Council – Kirklees Council Cabinet members have already said;

“We recognise that some people may never be able to achieve this form of payment and will be developing a minimal exemption criteria to ensure that we do not adversely affect those that require more support and assistance. We would value the involvement of KFTRA in the development of this criteria”

KFTRA request to Cabinet – KFTRA would ask that Kirklees Council consider making other methods of payment available to all council tenants for payment of their rent and service charges.

Demonstration– Tenant representatives will be demonstrating outside Huddersfield Town Hall from 3.30pm onwards and would like as many people as possible to come along and join us.

More Information – If you would like to show your support for this important issue and need further information then please contact KFTRA on 01484 223466

The Royal Horticultural Society is launching a new investment project in Yorkshire. Working in partnership with Yorkshire in Bloom, a new £100,000 fund will be distributed over the next three years to support grassroots community gardening across the region.

Gardening groups will be able to apply for funds to make a difference in their neighbourhoods. Advice and support will be given to groups by the RHS Regional Development Team based at Harlow Carr.

Small grants are available for groups that require start-up funding; a minimum of £300 and a maximum of £500 are available.

For larger projects, the minimum grant is £5,000, the maximum is £10,000.

The RHS wants to ensure that we are able to maximise our support for the projects we fund, so all applicants will be asked to register with